Alberti's philosophy of beauty still guides the ambience of Italian villa life.

New Zealanders who embrace Mediterranean-inspired architecture, antiques and home wares often receive a bad wrap for taking as their own an architectural form and ambience that comes from the other side of the world. 

The standard of many Mediterranean style homes built in New Zealand has received a bad rap too.  Inappropriate design comprising monolithic cladding over poorly built structures with no overhang have deservedly been given a bad name, but I say don’t blame Italian design. Some Kiwi builders have simply knocked up structures that have an inclination to leak.    

Though some people are disparaging of ‘borrowed’ styles, there’s definitely something about the Mediterranean style that appeals to many around the world, especially New Zealanders. Perhaps it’s the love of landscape, leisure and the libidinous opportunities that the Italians encourage?

Italian Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti had a holistic approach to design and has been called the Universal Man of the Renaissance.  Alberti was born in Genoa in 1404 and arrived in Rome during a building boom.

The son of a nobleman, he had some impressive connections,  the Pope among them, and many of Alberti’s architectural visions were completed with the assistance of another architect Bernardo Rossellini.

Alberti was also a writer and produced books on architecture, painting, education, marriage, household management, history, town planning, engineering and even the philosophy of beauty. One of his most popular quotes reads: “In villa life, you will enjoy pure and airy days, open and happy.”

His most famous building is the Santa Maria Novella, which was completed in Florence in 1471. Alberti died in Rome in 1472, with the architectural fraternity and wider community richer for his contribution.